Welcome to week number 112 of the universe's longest running Elite Dangerous Drabble competition.
We need your help and ask that you vote for 3 drabbles from the selection of mysterious anomalies below.
Choose wisely, choose carefully and choose the 3 and only the 3 you think are the best.
The winner will be awarded the crown of drabbles and will proudly wear this imaginary item for a whole week whilst they bask in the applause of their peers.
This week's topic was chosen by the wonderful insanephoton who won last week and the topic is...
To help make your mind up we strongly suggest that you listen to the tuberiffic Commander Psykokow who streams a live Drabble show every Friday at 7pm UK time featuring all of this week's drabbles. Simply head to www.twitch.tv/psykokow and join in the fun
01 - Splendour - Cabin Fever
The harmonica, now quiet, spun lazily away from the limp hand. A dark globule of blood intersected its path smearing crimson over the gleaming chrome.
The instrument started to drift towards the wall of the compartment. The mangled corpse of the musician already nestled there, covering a number of the black holes that inexorably drew the loose contents of the room towards them, blood, spent cartridges, the overheated gun.
The faint whistling noise faded, the sound all spacers feared had filled the void left by the incessant music, and then the stammering of the gun.
My remlock deployed.
Finally, silence.
02 - Listeri69 - The Examination
'So what appears to be the problem?' the doctor looked at his notes
Simoof bent over gesticulating towards his "black hole" 'my last shart I think something tore in two'
'Right, let's have a look, pop your pants off and place your hands on the couch, you might feel a little stinging sensation'
Simoof gave a little moan as the doctor rummaged around for the culprit
the doc placed one hand on simoof's shoulder
'well there's good news and bad news'
'the good news it's only a small fissure easily repaired'
'and the bad?'
A second hand grabbed Simoof's shoulder.
03 - Simoof - Black Holes Eggsplained
Stephen H-A-wk-I-ns was lecturing at George Lucas. No longer travelling electrically, electronically was ample. Which was fortunate. Bay17 was the only one with wheelchair access, damn Cobra.
"Black holes don't pop into existence. The universe cooks them. Now we know the ingredients we can create our own. However they take millions of years to complete. Here's a simulation sped-up 100 trillion times."
Stunning; Even sped up there was a slow gracefullness to it.
"Oops. That was the other video we had to speed up a trillion times".
On screen, after a long long time, Kows poached eggs started to form.
04 - Dan "Too busy to join the forum" Grubb - An Ode to Shouty Man (with added science)
To think in aeons past we cried,
Don't go near black holes! We'll be fried!
When now we know, or theorise,
That thin tubes would befall toes and thighs,
And then fat tums, bums, chests and chins,
As we got sucked deep down within,
The dark hole that all fates can't decide,
What really happens when we slip inside,
So Shouty, with your deep hole so dark,
Would you be kind enough to hark,
What happens deep within your hole,
Does it burn hot or is it cold?
And could we survive as one great nation,
The crushing, pulling, spaghettification?
05 - EidLeWeise - Singularity at the Over Easy Mug
I'll start with the double fried black pudding and egg bap, Alfie said to the waitress on Barnard Station's popular Diner, the 'Over Easy and Mug'. For my main can I please have the Hubcap Trumble Burger, with extra fries, mushrooms and onion rings, and a Thargoid sized Mug of coffee, though could you make it a Hutton mug, to keep it warm this time?
Across the Diner from Alfie, David was throwing his used mugs into the corner. One to many and the pile of used mugs winked into a singularity which started to suck the station into itself.
06 - psykokow - Role Play
“The ship shuddered, interior lighting sparking before going dark.
A slow droning sound grew silent as the last of the ships power dissipated into the hungry void.
Captain Awesome’s visor steamed up, his wounds sealed by his flight suit, stopping him from bleeding out, the pressure causing enough sharp pains to keep him conscious long enough to escape.
The ship now tumbled like a leaf on the wind, spinning faster and faster as it sped towards the black hole, it would be over soon.”
---------------------------------------------------
“MUM, STEVE’s Put a spaceship in my bum again”
“STEVE and T.J, BEHAVE IN THE BATH!!”
07 - STRONTIUM DOG - Tales of the unexpected
captain grim saluted his trusty lieutenant.
"I am expecting an old friend to arrive but have urgent business at bango
see to it he is well looked after, you know show him around, give him the grand tour, you know take him out."
"no problem captain i shall get his route plotted in and go out to greet him half way for you" his lieutenant replied with a knowing nod
" thanks ripper, i know i can rely on you my trusty lieutenant"
later that day
" where is my old friend?"
"taken out!" " his bones grinding in a black hole captain!
08 - Erik Marcaigh - Not Done With You Yet
Commander Erik's Anaconda, "Killer Pumpkin", orbited the black hole. DocStone was tied to the co-pilot seat, unable to move and thinking he'd outlived his usefulness.
Erik spun his seat around and watched Simoof bounce off the walls, drooling and giggling.
"So the way I figure it, he'll be in a constant state of death if I put him in that sidewinder in the hold and send him into the black hole. Time will slow to a crawl. Correct?"
"Not according to the new laws of physics proven by Dr. Psykokow, PhD."
Erik sighed, pointed his pistol at Simoof, and fired.
09 - Ian Phillips - Breaking point.
The prison viewport looked out over a field of jagged rocks. Dim light from the small red sun didn't really cast shadows, it just highlighted them. Dark, unpleasant and depressing, the vista clawed it's way into the viewers psyche.
One man broke and whispered, "Enough! I'm getting out of here, whatever it takes."
He picked a chair from the floor and rushed the guard, smashing him down. Flinging the door to the corridor open, he ran, screams preceding him.
The prison commandant read the final line of the incident report. "Prisoner Simoof consigned to solitary confinment in the "Black Hole".
10 - Frank - Let's go see
The strident orchestral Pathe music accompanied a valiant pilot donning his helmet.
A clipped English voiceover yelled through the static of the recording. "Here we have an example of British daring-do. The great explorer, Commander Simoof, getting ready for the ultimate trip, through a Black Hole. His famous Cobra, The Curious Cat, has been heavily modified for this expedition. He joked that it's now just a flying shield generator.
And there he goes. All our hopes and wishes go with him."
They pieced together his last ever message from over the decades, "I'm approaching the event.. horizon.. Let's... go.... see......"
11 - MrMogadon - The (Apparently) Never Ending Story
Space, a black, uncaring vastness, mostly bereft of interest.
Sometimes however, some entertainment for the gods of whimsy.
An asteroid belt.
A space wreck: total collapse imminent.
An anaconda, matt black and non-reflective, a black hole against the stars, approaches the wreck.
The wreck collapses; a sealed compartment shatters and a figure is ejected into space.
Aware of little other than the approaching darkness, the figure is momentarily surprised at the absence of a bright light, before unconsciousness.
The stolen stealth prototype Calcutta, swiftly picks up the figure. Weak life signs still detectable.
“Live Kalran my brother”, the Captain whispers
12 - cleonymus - The last dance
"God that's beautiful" exclaimed Commander Cleonymus.
"Thank you captain" purred the ships AI.
"Not you Spanner" said Cleonymous, thinking he really should change the AI's name to something more in keeping with it's sultry voice.
“The star system. That's what is beautiful! Now we are above the plane of the ecliptic you can see it for what it is. Six black holes in a perfect dance of destruction”
“Still we had better plot our route out of here, while we are on the right side of the event horizon. Open up the system map”
But Spanner was sulking.
13 - Missileman - 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'
It had been called the event of the millennium, even the major powers put aside differences to allow probes into V616-Monocerotis
The star had been collapsing for centuries.
Inside a lone ship patrolled the system mainly to ward off any explorers who may unwittingly jump into the system.
It was only a matter of hours before the gravitational collapse would overpower their jumpdrives,
'prepare to vacate the system'
At that moment a signature appeared on the radar, a frigate appearing from the swirling black mass of witchspace. with one message,
'Let us test this weapon, engage the wormhole creation drive'
14 - moose666 - Mile high treason against the Emperor
"All rise!"
The courtroom stood as the judge began to pass sentence
"For the crime of Mile High Treason, you are hearby sentenced to be spaghettified, until you are dead."
"Can't I be spaghettified until i'm sorry?", the man in the dock cheekily asked.
The judge glared, one of the guards whacked the condemned with the butt of his gun.
"Tomorrow, you will be taken to Mintaka, whence you will be jettisoned into the black hole there, and your spaghettification shall commence. May you bask in the Emperor's forgiveness"
"Case closed!"
With a bang of his gavel, court was dismissed.
15 - Edith_The_Hutt - A (Mostly) Harmless Invitation
The legendary Black Hole Nightclub is a re-purposed prototype Occelus star port. It jumps from system to system serving the best drinks, the best drugs and best music known to man. When the Black Hole shows up in your system, everybody who's anybody either pays through the nose to get in, or manages to score a free VIP invite...
Angel's eyes flicked between the iridescent black card in her fingers, the note which came with it and her poverty-red account balance.
Free Drinks! Muchos Creds!
Be there.
--Dread
"I'm about to have another adventure," she thought, downing her Hullstripper
"Crap."
16 - DocStone - Not another Hollywood sequel?
We first noticed the phenomenon during a standard scan of the system. There, just outside the orbit of the third planet, an Earth-like with a singular land mass.
It was incredible, its pure white event horizon emitting pulses of hawking radiation of a kind never seen before, man, the scientists on the ship were going crazy, saying Schwarzschild was right and White Holes really did exist.
Me? I was more interested in the transmissions I’d picked up from the planet using sub-light frequencies. It kept repeating:
“Hello, this is V.I.N.CENT, is there anyone out there? It’s very lonely down here.”
17 - W4rSkuLL - Growing
She could feel her body being stretched and blood started pouring from her mouth. Her Asp outfitted for exploring had exited hyperspace to close to the giant BL-S9. The ship was falling apart.
Metal screeching and being twisted to scrap. Her mind were being disintegrated. But just before she transformed into a cloud of elementary particles Sonja thought about home. About her daughter playing with her friends and her husbands warm touch.
A lifetime flashed before her as the black hole devoured the human and her ship in a cascade of light and atoms.
The giant had grown slightly bigger.
18 - insanephoton - Waste Disposal
Most people avoid black holes like the plague. Only explorers bother to give them a second glance. Even they tend to look for new ones that haven't been scanned.
That suits me. You see I work in 'waste disposal'. I'm one of the guys you call if you want something gone permanently
People say that space is so big that the chances of finding something abandoned out there are extremely small. But things have an inconvenient habit of getting found just when you don't want them to. The only permanent guaranteed solution is to put whatever over the event horizon
19 - Alesgriff79 - Black holes, Son
"They're out there, you know! No one knows how many or where all of them are. Always feeding themselves, with destruction of anything that lies in their path." the withered old man said, staring out of the glazed roof with unfocused eyes. His lifetime spent on research, showed in his face and his bent over stance.
"Granddad, what are you talking about?" Asked the small boy, more interested in the bread they were using to feed the ducks.
They always came out to the ponds in the agricultural ring, on a Sunday afternoon, while grandma got ready for tea time.
20 - Alien - The Alien Chronicles: Part 1
The exploration vessel "Equinox" was halfway through scanning the quantum singularity when the black hole shimmered.
A science officer handed Captain Ferbus a report, there was a metallic object coming through the black hole towards the ship. Scans were not accurate enough to determine what the object was or maybe it didn't want to be scanned.
Ferbus suddenly remembered the tales he'd been told as child "Behave or the Thargoids will get you!" He didn't believe in Thargoids, it was a thing parents told you in order to scare you.
Thargoids didn't exist, had always been a myth ... hadn't they?
In case you were wondering there were 21 drabbles entered this week but one of them was absolutely rubbish so I removed it to fit the other 20 in; because even the enormous gravity of a black hole can't force 21 drabbles into this prestigious contest
We need your help and ask that you vote for 3 drabbles from the selection of mysterious anomalies below.
Choose wisely, choose carefully and choose the 3 and only the 3 you think are the best.
The winner will be awarded the crown of drabbles and will proudly wear this imaginary item for a whole week whilst they bask in the applause of their peers.
This week's topic was chosen by the wonderful insanephoton who won last week and the topic is...
To help make your mind up we strongly suggest that you listen to the tuberiffic Commander Psykokow who streams a live Drabble show every Friday at 7pm UK time featuring all of this week's drabbles. Simply head to www.twitch.tv/psykokow and join in the fun
01 - Splendour - Cabin Fever
The harmonica, now quiet, spun lazily away from the limp hand. A dark globule of blood intersected its path smearing crimson over the gleaming chrome.
The instrument started to drift towards the wall of the compartment. The mangled corpse of the musician already nestled there, covering a number of the black holes that inexorably drew the loose contents of the room towards them, blood, spent cartridges, the overheated gun.
The faint whistling noise faded, the sound all spacers feared had filled the void left by the incessant music, and then the stammering of the gun.
My remlock deployed.
Finally, silence.
02 - Listeri69 - The Examination
'So what appears to be the problem?' the doctor looked at his notes
Simoof bent over gesticulating towards his "black hole" 'my last shart I think something tore in two'
'Right, let's have a look, pop your pants off and place your hands on the couch, you might feel a little stinging sensation'
Simoof gave a little moan as the doctor rummaged around for the culprit
the doc placed one hand on simoof's shoulder
'well there's good news and bad news'
'the good news it's only a small fissure easily repaired'
'and the bad?'
A second hand grabbed Simoof's shoulder.
03 - Simoof - Black Holes Eggsplained
Stephen H-A-wk-I-ns was lecturing at George Lucas. No longer travelling electrically, electronically was ample. Which was fortunate. Bay17 was the only one with wheelchair access, damn Cobra.
"Black holes don't pop into existence. The universe cooks them. Now we know the ingredients we can create our own. However they take millions of years to complete. Here's a simulation sped-up 100 trillion times."
Stunning; Even sped up there was a slow gracefullness to it.
"Oops. That was the other video we had to speed up a trillion times".
On screen, after a long long time, Kows poached eggs started to form.
04 - Dan "Too busy to join the forum" Grubb - An Ode to Shouty Man (with added science)
To think in aeons past we cried,
Don't go near black holes! We'll be fried!
When now we know, or theorise,
That thin tubes would befall toes and thighs,
And then fat tums, bums, chests and chins,
As we got sucked deep down within,
The dark hole that all fates can't decide,
What really happens when we slip inside,
So Shouty, with your deep hole so dark,
Would you be kind enough to hark,
What happens deep within your hole,
Does it burn hot or is it cold?
And could we survive as one great nation,
The crushing, pulling, spaghettification?
05 - EidLeWeise - Singularity at the Over Easy Mug
I'll start with the double fried black pudding and egg bap, Alfie said to the waitress on Barnard Station's popular Diner, the 'Over Easy and Mug'. For my main can I please have the Hubcap Trumble Burger, with extra fries, mushrooms and onion rings, and a Thargoid sized Mug of coffee, though could you make it a Hutton mug, to keep it warm this time?
Across the Diner from Alfie, David was throwing his used mugs into the corner. One to many and the pile of used mugs winked into a singularity which started to suck the station into itself.
06 - psykokow - Role Play
“The ship shuddered, interior lighting sparking before going dark.
A slow droning sound grew silent as the last of the ships power dissipated into the hungry void.
Captain Awesome’s visor steamed up, his wounds sealed by his flight suit, stopping him from bleeding out, the pressure causing enough sharp pains to keep him conscious long enough to escape.
The ship now tumbled like a leaf on the wind, spinning faster and faster as it sped towards the black hole, it would be over soon.”
---------------------------------------------------
“MUM, STEVE’s Put a spaceship in my bum again”
“STEVE and T.J, BEHAVE IN THE BATH!!”
07 - STRONTIUM DOG - Tales of the unexpected
captain grim saluted his trusty lieutenant.
"I am expecting an old friend to arrive but have urgent business at bango
see to it he is well looked after, you know show him around, give him the grand tour, you know take him out."
"no problem captain i shall get his route plotted in and go out to greet him half way for you" his lieutenant replied with a knowing nod
" thanks ripper, i know i can rely on you my trusty lieutenant"
later that day
" where is my old friend?"
"taken out!" " his bones grinding in a black hole captain!
08 - Erik Marcaigh - Not Done With You Yet
Commander Erik's Anaconda, "Killer Pumpkin", orbited the black hole. DocStone was tied to the co-pilot seat, unable to move and thinking he'd outlived his usefulness.
Erik spun his seat around and watched Simoof bounce off the walls, drooling and giggling.
"So the way I figure it, he'll be in a constant state of death if I put him in that sidewinder in the hold and send him into the black hole. Time will slow to a crawl. Correct?"
"Not according to the new laws of physics proven by Dr. Psykokow, PhD."
Erik sighed, pointed his pistol at Simoof, and fired.
09 - Ian Phillips - Breaking point.
The prison viewport looked out over a field of jagged rocks. Dim light from the small red sun didn't really cast shadows, it just highlighted them. Dark, unpleasant and depressing, the vista clawed it's way into the viewers psyche.
One man broke and whispered, "Enough! I'm getting out of here, whatever it takes."
He picked a chair from the floor and rushed the guard, smashing him down. Flinging the door to the corridor open, he ran, screams preceding him.
The prison commandant read the final line of the incident report. "Prisoner Simoof consigned to solitary confinment in the "Black Hole".
10 - Frank - Let's go see
The strident orchestral Pathe music accompanied a valiant pilot donning his helmet.
A clipped English voiceover yelled through the static of the recording. "Here we have an example of British daring-do. The great explorer, Commander Simoof, getting ready for the ultimate trip, through a Black Hole. His famous Cobra, The Curious Cat, has been heavily modified for this expedition. He joked that it's now just a flying shield generator.
And there he goes. All our hopes and wishes go with him."
They pieced together his last ever message from over the decades, "I'm approaching the event.. horizon.. Let's... go.... see......"
11 - MrMogadon - The (Apparently) Never Ending Story
Space, a black, uncaring vastness, mostly bereft of interest.
Sometimes however, some entertainment for the gods of whimsy.
An asteroid belt.
A space wreck: total collapse imminent.
An anaconda, matt black and non-reflective, a black hole against the stars, approaches the wreck.
The wreck collapses; a sealed compartment shatters and a figure is ejected into space.
Aware of little other than the approaching darkness, the figure is momentarily surprised at the absence of a bright light, before unconsciousness.
The stolen stealth prototype Calcutta, swiftly picks up the figure. Weak life signs still detectable.
“Live Kalran my brother”, the Captain whispers
12 - cleonymus - The last dance
"God that's beautiful" exclaimed Commander Cleonymus.
"Thank you captain" purred the ships AI.
"Not you Spanner" said Cleonymous, thinking he really should change the AI's name to something more in keeping with it's sultry voice.
“The star system. That's what is beautiful! Now we are above the plane of the ecliptic you can see it for what it is. Six black holes in a perfect dance of destruction”
“Still we had better plot our route out of here, while we are on the right side of the event horizon. Open up the system map”
But Spanner was sulking.
13 - Missileman - 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'
It had been called the event of the millennium, even the major powers put aside differences to allow probes into V616-Monocerotis
The star had been collapsing for centuries.
Inside a lone ship patrolled the system mainly to ward off any explorers who may unwittingly jump into the system.
It was only a matter of hours before the gravitational collapse would overpower their jumpdrives,
'prepare to vacate the system'
At that moment a signature appeared on the radar, a frigate appearing from the swirling black mass of witchspace. with one message,
'Let us test this weapon, engage the wormhole creation drive'
14 - moose666 - Mile high treason against the Emperor
"All rise!"
The courtroom stood as the judge began to pass sentence
"For the crime of Mile High Treason, you are hearby sentenced to be spaghettified, until you are dead."
"Can't I be spaghettified until i'm sorry?", the man in the dock cheekily asked.
The judge glared, one of the guards whacked the condemned with the butt of his gun.
"Tomorrow, you will be taken to Mintaka, whence you will be jettisoned into the black hole there, and your spaghettification shall commence. May you bask in the Emperor's forgiveness"
"Case closed!"
With a bang of his gavel, court was dismissed.
15 - Edith_The_Hutt - A (Mostly) Harmless Invitation
The legendary Black Hole Nightclub is a re-purposed prototype Occelus star port. It jumps from system to system serving the best drinks, the best drugs and best music known to man. When the Black Hole shows up in your system, everybody who's anybody either pays through the nose to get in, or manages to score a free VIP invite...
Angel's eyes flicked between the iridescent black card in her fingers, the note which came with it and her poverty-red account balance.
Free Drinks! Muchos Creds!
Be there.
--Dread
"I'm about to have another adventure," she thought, downing her Hullstripper
"Crap."
16 - DocStone - Not another Hollywood sequel?
We first noticed the phenomenon during a standard scan of the system. There, just outside the orbit of the third planet, an Earth-like with a singular land mass.
It was incredible, its pure white event horizon emitting pulses of hawking radiation of a kind never seen before, man, the scientists on the ship were going crazy, saying Schwarzschild was right and White Holes really did exist.
Me? I was more interested in the transmissions I’d picked up from the planet using sub-light frequencies. It kept repeating:
“Hello, this is V.I.N.CENT, is there anyone out there? It’s very lonely down here.”
17 - W4rSkuLL - Growing
She could feel her body being stretched and blood started pouring from her mouth. Her Asp outfitted for exploring had exited hyperspace to close to the giant BL-S9. The ship was falling apart.
Metal screeching and being twisted to scrap. Her mind were being disintegrated. But just before she transformed into a cloud of elementary particles Sonja thought about home. About her daughter playing with her friends and her husbands warm touch.
A lifetime flashed before her as the black hole devoured the human and her ship in a cascade of light and atoms.
The giant had grown slightly bigger.
18 - insanephoton - Waste Disposal
Most people avoid black holes like the plague. Only explorers bother to give them a second glance. Even they tend to look for new ones that haven't been scanned.
That suits me. You see I work in 'waste disposal'. I'm one of the guys you call if you want something gone permanently
People say that space is so big that the chances of finding something abandoned out there are extremely small. But things have an inconvenient habit of getting found just when you don't want them to. The only permanent guaranteed solution is to put whatever over the event horizon
19 - Alesgriff79 - Black holes, Son
"They're out there, you know! No one knows how many or where all of them are. Always feeding themselves, with destruction of anything that lies in their path." the withered old man said, staring out of the glazed roof with unfocused eyes. His lifetime spent on research, showed in his face and his bent over stance.
"Granddad, what are you talking about?" Asked the small boy, more interested in the bread they were using to feed the ducks.
They always came out to the ponds in the agricultural ring, on a Sunday afternoon, while grandma got ready for tea time.
20 - Alien - The Alien Chronicles: Part 1
The exploration vessel "Equinox" was halfway through scanning the quantum singularity when the black hole shimmered.
A science officer handed Captain Ferbus a report, there was a metallic object coming through the black hole towards the ship. Scans were not accurate enough to determine what the object was or maybe it didn't want to be scanned.
Ferbus suddenly remembered the tales he'd been told as child "Behave or the Thargoids will get you!" He didn't believe in Thargoids, it was a thing parents told you in order to scare you.
Thargoids didn't exist, had always been a myth ... hadn't they?
In case you were wondering there were 21 drabbles entered this week but one of them was absolutely rubbish so I removed it to fit the other 20 in; because even the enormous gravity of a black hole can't force 21 drabbles into this prestigious contest
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